“Many investors had expected department stores to enjoy robust sales over the holidays in light of a U.S. economy buoyed by low unemployment, higher wages, strong consumer confidence and cheap gas.” Lackluster results from Macy’s and Kohl’s sent “retail stocks into a tailspin… calling into question whether such mall-based chains can compete in a changing landscape where shoppers are shifting more of their spending online.”

“U.S. public companies are moving away from the traditional shareholders’ meeting, opting instead to interact with investors online. Sensible as this might seem in the internet age, it’s important to ensure that it becomes a way to improve — rather than stifle — communication.”

“Every second three more Indians experience the internet for the first time. By 2030 more than 1 billion of them will be online.” Smart phone usage is soaring. And “no battle for the online future of India is more intense than the one now being waged in e-commerce.”While this is a “local battle for customers,” it is “also a battle for the future” that will likely prove “a better template for the e-commerce battle in other emerging markets.”

With postal services around the world struggling to survive, Canada is taking a step that few nations have dared. “With the digital handwriting ever clearer on the wall, the Canadian postal service has announced that it will end its remaining door-to-door letter deliveries over the next five years and focus on its one clear growth area: package deliveries to a public that is increasingly doing its shopping online.”

“Cyber Monday” (November 28) “was the heaviest online spending day on record at $1.25 billion.” The rest of the week brought 2 more days (November 29 & 30) with cyber sales exceeding $1 billion. All told, “online sales for the first full week of what is considered the true holiday shopping season grew 15 percent to a record $5.96 billion.”